[OB] Teft was before Kaladin

[Malzera]

My theory is that teft was a wind runner as a child.

He says that his parents were part of the order of envisagers and that each dies early in his life. He also says that he betrays trust and talks about his old spear squad and childhood reluctantly if he can even be prodded into talking. His reluctance reminds me a lot of kaladin’s reluctance to talk about amaram and his months as a slave.

i think teft spoke the first ideal and bonded his spen at a young age and when he figured out what he could do tried to save his family by convincing them that his mother had powers. (He would probably be to scared to show himself as a surge binder much like the others we have seen and so opted for this). This would explain why his mother “really believed she had it in her”. He would have easily been able to make spheres go done in her presence and make things change corse with the reverse lashing (like Kaladin did with the arrows). When she went to the envisagers saying she was a radiant (and could stop Trying to bring back the voidbringers) they tested her but teft couldn’t be there to protect her. This was his first failing. Then he went to the local law enforcement to try and save his father resulting in him being hanged. We don’t have much on the intervening years between this and the bridge crews but I think he was still trying to save people (his old spear squad) when he joined the army but fell back into drugs (witch probably started after his fathers death) resulting in him not going on a scheduled plateau run. (Causing his men to die in some way. Likely by an enemy shard bearer) his failure to fight when commanded resulted in the bridge crews. 

Sorry it’s so long winded

tell me what you think

[Grishhammer]

I think this is possible, but it raises some other questions, I think.

Does a radiant have to have spoken the third ideal before they can have squires? I think this would fit with your theory, since Kaladin had spoken the third ideal before Lopen could use stormlight and it is one possible explanation why

Spoiler

Kaladin's squires couldn't use stormlight even while Teft was still around.

I think it also fits this theory that 

Spoiler

Text was so reluctant to let anyone else know that he had already bonded a spren, since it probably couldn't have happened while he was high and missing training. He obviously didnt feel like he was worthy to be a radiant, and was probably scared of judgement from his friends if they saw that he was already a radiant, while he felt like he was so far beneath them.

 

Edited March 17, 2018 by Grishhammer
Auto-correct messed up some names.

[Malzera]

I’m almost certain that it requires the 3rd ideal to have squires. Kaladin and Shallan both had people around them begin to develop powers after the 3rd

 

to add to the theory, he had been 1 of the first to aid Kaladin when prompted. He had no real reason to help except maybe the theoretical oath to protect where rock felt he owed Kaladin 

Edited March 17, 2018 by Malzera

[RShara]

Unfortunately, Syl made it clear that she was the only one who crossed over, and defied the Stormfather to find someone to bond.

 

Quote

“I am the only honorspren who has come,” Syl said. “I . . .” She seemed to be stretching to remember. “I was forbidden. I came anyway. To find you.”

“You knew me?”

“No. But I knew I’d find you.” She smiled. “I spent the time with my cousins, searching.”

 

[MountainKing]

If Teft's spren left, then it would beany years before Sly was discovered, I think, of that spren would of wondered off by itself they wouldn't think that she went off and bonded. Sly actively fought against the stormfather when he didn't like her idea off bonding again.

[Malzera]

I forgot about that but I think I can explain that away too. Teft would have well and truly killed his spren by the point he was on the bridge crews. As we saw in shadsmar, spen don’t like to acknowledge dead spen. So at the time she said she was to only 1 trying she would have been. As for being the only 1 to disobey it’s a bit easier. They had sent 1 to try and she had been killed so the rest were forbidden to try. The stormfather did say that “maybe if their knights still lived something could be done” in reference to reviving spren. Teft might have revive his dead spen. You might be right but I still think my theory holds some weight 

Edited March 17, 2018 by Malzera

[RShara]

Sorry, I think Syl and the Stormfather would know.

[Malzera]

They aren’t perfect in their thought. Syl was thought to be lost forever during the recreance. When she reappeared the others were shocked. That is why she is so special. I would need the book in front of me for more to disprove the “I think syl and the storm father would know” bit

Edited March 17, 2018 by Malzera

[RShara]

No, but transitioning between the Realms seems to take a significant effort.  And swearing an Oath is also very obvious, especially for Windrunners.  Look at what happened around Lopen when he swore the 2nd Oath.  The Stormfather basically had to Accept (or at least acknowledge) each Oath, as well as the spren.  I don't see how Teft could have sworn the First Oath without the Stormfather being aware.

There's also the fact that the Dysian Aimians have been watching for and observing any budding Knights Radiant.  If Teft had started to bond that long ago (we're talking decades before even Jasnah and Shallan), they would likely know.  And they don't mention him at all, yet they mention Shallan, who did bond, and then break the bond.

Edited March 17, 2018 by RShara

[Calderis]

The envisages were a group that believed things, many of them incorrect, about the Radiants (and they were not the ones trying to return the Voidbringers, that was the Sons of Honor). If Teft had been an actual Radiant in their midst, many things would have changed.

Teft should also have known much more clearly what Kaladin was and wasn't capable of in the beginning, but he was functioning off of guesswork. He knew the things he learned from his parents, which had bits of truth buried in piles of misinformation. 

If he had bonded a Spren, and had killed it, I'm fairly sure the residuals of that on his spiritweb would keep any other spren from going near him. 

And just as a chance to nitpick @RShara(because she knows here crem, so it's rare) Shallan didn't break her bond. It just regressed to the point that pattern would probably have been better off if he'd left her and went fully stupid. 

[Steeldancer]

Yeah if I were to guess, I think Teft bonded his spren sometime during WoR. 

[Malzera]

I can say with almost absolute certainly that the storm father does not acknowledge every oath sworn. I believe he didn’t acknowledge 1 of kaladins oath until he swore the 3rd. I believe he also didn’t acknowledge the first oath for the entirety of bridge 4 and the other hopefuls. And certainly never for Shallan and her group. Further teft was the 1 to explain the first ideal to Kaladin.

[Calderis]

@Malzera yes, as he learned it from his envisiger parents. It was also flawed, in that his explanation assumes that the first ideal can only be interpreted one way.

Due to this, most readers assume that a Radiant must be good. That is not the only way to interpret the first oath. 

He also "explained" the abilities of the Radiants, and knew nothing of the Orders. He spoke as if all powers were available to all all Radiants. He repeatedly admitted to not knowing how any of it worked. 

Edited March 18, 2018 by Calderis

[Yata]

I didn't notice this topic.

Teft is extremely unlikely to be a Radiant in his youth and almost impossible to be a Windrunner for the Honorspren's attitude upon this.

The Honorspren (exept Syl that never took this agreement with the SF) started to bond with people only after the Stormdaddy himself bonded Dalinar.

He be a surgebinder of another order is instead only extremely unlikely but less troublesome. Sure he need to be only a proto-radiant to not notice the whole stuff in the right prospective and He can't be of some specific orders because we know those spren didn't bond at the time (es. Cultivationspren)

.

 

Anyway nothing in the text make me this he was a Radiant or proto-radiant of sort

[Storyspren]

Surely there is more to Teft's backstory than we've seen so far. Thus it has something to do with some kind of powers or something. Thus his spren has been following him around at least for longer than revealed in the book. Q.e.d. I suspected him of being a herald back in the good old days before book 2.

Same for Rock minus the Herald bit. 

 

[Malzera]

@Calderis if he was experimenting he wouldn’t have gotten far. Kaladin has repeatedly said that was still trying to figure out what his first oath truly meant. So with that I don’t really except this as prof against my theory. RShara’s prof against it is better but I still see loopholes, though small, with her disproof 

Edited March 30, 2018 by Malzera